Well, we made it home safely. The weekend with my youngest sister and her family was a pleasure.
Friday, about 11:00, Mother, Dear Husband and I had lunch at Chili’s and then started our drive to Central Indiana. We took a variation on the route that we’ve been using for the last 15 years or so, and were there half an hour earlier. The fields are not completely stripped clean, but the harvest is pretty far along. My mother enjoyed the view, and marveled again, and again, over the distance between the farm houses in that part of the world.
Friday evening we had a quiet night with the family. Sis made chili and we’d stopped at a local bakery and bought them out so that we would have “bread and butter” gifts. (Pun intended. *G*) We tried the cheese bread, a loaf of cinnamon bread and cinnamon buns for breakfast, a raspberry creme kuchen, and three pots of jam. (Note….we did NOT eat all of that! Some of it was shared with friends and some was frozen.) My sis made a carrot cake, so DH could have one piece, and not have to take the entire cake home. (That was part of his birthday present.) We gave Daughter #2 her birthday gift, so that she could share it with her friends. October is a busy birthday month for us.
Saturday, we had brunch at home and then went to see both of the girls in the Class C District Marching Band Competition. I have a lot to share on that in a later post, but I’m happy to say that their band is going on to the State competition this coming weekend.
It was a bitterly cold day. We took extra coats, gloves, a blanket, and cushions to sit on. The kids, especially the color guards, were inadequately covered, and it was windy, and starting to rain by the time the contest was over. They get a lot of credit for toughing it out under difficult circumstances.
The kids went with the band to dinner, and the adults had dinner out, too, NOT with the band!
Sunday morning, we had breakfast, and then packed up for the return trip home. I figured my sis and her husband had enough to do, so we didn’t linger.
On the trip home, we fine-tuned the route once again, and made it home in four hours, despite a 15 minute delay at a McDonald’s, getting iced tea. (We ran afoul of the church crowd.)
It was a good thing we came home early. Dear Husband put me to work right away. I had to type two proposals and do all the attendant paperwork. We had scheduled a visit on Monday with the CPA’s assistant, so I was chained to the desk for the day. I needed to go to exercise, but there wasn’t time for everything that needed to be done. I even put off grocery shopping!
I’m glad we went, and I’m glad we’re back safely. I really enjoy this annual outting.
Daily Archives: October 20, 2004
Zuppa!
Did I get it right? The title? I think that’s Italian for “Soup.”
At any rate, it seems that soup is on my mind. It could be that our chilly Fall days have something to do with that. Too bad it’s supposed to be almost 70 by Friday, because I’m doing soup this week, anyway.
When I went to do the meal plans for this week, I decided that we needed to do a crock pot of “Pasta e fagioli.” I have one of the recipes that strives to imitate the Pasta and Bean soup that Olive Garden serves. It’s a great soup, but it makes enough soup for about forty people. I plan on palming some off on family. I could probably freeze half of it, but this is one soup I like served fresh.
Then, I was surfing for more recipes that are diabetic friendly, and came across “Spicy Seafood and Chicken Gumbo with Rice.” This recipe is supposedly for just six servings, but it has a pound of shrimp, 4 oz of crab meat, 1 cup of cooked chicken and a pound of okra, among other things. I think there will be six very big servings, but I’m going to follow the recipe exactly, the first time. We’ll have it for dinner (checking my watch)…today.
And, I’ve been meaning to make butternut squash soup for several weeks. The recipe I saved from a newspaper, years ago, has a roasted red pepper coulis that is swirled through the finished soup. I’m looking forward to trying this one, and I hope it becomes one of the staple soups in my repertoire.
My oldest sister and I were having lunch together for the first time in ages. They had “Navy Bean Soup” on the menu, and she ordered it, thinking it would be like my version. Unfortunately, it was a tomato-veggie soup with white beans. She was not impressed. I promised her that I would make a pot of it for her. I need a ham bone, or ham hocks, a pound of navy beans, onion, celery, a potato, bay leaf, thyme, a quart or two of water….. Maybe I better get started.
I have one more soup recipe to find. It seems to me that it would be a good idea to have a hot vegetable beef soup on hand on really cold days when Dear Husband gets home from battling the weather and work. It would tide him over until I can get dinner on the table, and it would give him one more serving of veggies. I want to find one that has a great beef broth, and a LOT of veggies in it. The heat alone should help to revive him, but I want him to enjoy the taste, too. If you have a great veggie soup recipe, let me know, won’t you?